Corinthians knock São Paulo out of the Campeonato Paulista and book place in finals

Corinthians’ 2-0 win the estádio Morumbi was more than enough to see Mano Menezes’ team into the finals where they will face Santos.

The Parque São Jorge outfit arrived needing just a draw to go through but second-half goals from Douglas and Ronaldo gave Corinthians a deserved win against a São Paulo side bereft of creativity and fighting spirit. Rodrigo’s sending off meant that there was going to be no way back against the league’s best defence. But in truth, even with 11 men, São Paulo never looked like taking control of the match.

More worrying for São Paulo’s long-term plans in the knockout phase of the Libertadores was Muricy Ramalho’s inactivity on the bench. The coach had no answer to his team’s limitations on the pitch and made just one ineffective change bringing on the youngster Wellington in place of Dagoberto.

Corinthians second goal killed off the match completely. At this point São Paulo needed at least three goals to progress and from the kick off it was obvious that the Tricolor had completely given up. Corinthians could have gone on to knock in four or five past their rivals, but surprisingly let São Paulo off the hook.

I was impressed with Douglas in this game and his role on both goals. On the first he carried the ball on a quick counter, passed to Ronaldo who switched play well to Jorge Henrique whose shot went off the post and fell perfectly for Douglas to tap into the open net. On the second I believe it was Douglas’ long ball which Ronaldo ran onto and scored. Rodrigo was the Sao Paulo defender left in the dust by Ronaldo on his goal yesterday. I was uncertain if Bosco should have come out for that through ball as Rodrigo was on Ronaldo’s shoulder but he did and arrived there late as Ronaldo calmly lifted the ball over him and into the net. I would not say Ronaldo dominated the game but his contributions were decisive as like Douglas he did play a major role in both goals. Looks like Ronnie is working himself back into shape. That is not just good news for Corinthians fans but fans everywhere of the beautiful game.

Corinthians midfield really played well and shut down Sao Paulo. It was strange but as Jon noted on his TV broadcast and here on his blog once they went behind Sao Paulo showed very little energy. And that was after they used a primarily reserve team midweek in the Libertadores. Did they not place a high priority on this game, or were they just beaten by a better team on the day? I think the latter as Sao Paulo did use their best team available against Corinthians.